Gas company bosses in $17m fraud

Two former directors of a Wellington gas retail company have
been found guilty of fraud charges over $17 million worth of
offending.

The verdict was given to E-Gas' former managing director
Ronald Rosenberg and former general manager Sydney Lio Hunt
by Judge Bruce Davidson at the Wellington District Court
today.

Each was charged by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) with 41
counts relating to the dishonest use of documents.

The judge-alone trial lasted about four weeks.

Both men stood silently in the dock while Judge Davidson read
out the guilty verdicts.

At today's hearing the public gallery was packed with
supporters of the two defendants.

The SFO laid the charges in July 2012 after an investigation
alleged that between April 2005 and October 2008 the two men
deliberately under-reported the quantity of gas supplied to
its retail customers.

E-Gas under-reported its gas consumption to the tune of about
$8.74 million and penalties were avoided to the figure of
about $8.67 million.